Monday, June 24, 2013

In 1965, the world’s best-selling science fiction novel,Dune, introduced us to a future interstellar world at war over a “spice” called melange. Found only on the desert planet of Arrakis,
melange was the most sought-after substance in the universe, capable of
providing human beings a better and longer life, and
unlocking “prescience,” which made interstellar travel
possible.

Melange, you might say, was a product advantaged beyond all
others for its time and place.

Occasionally, there are commodities here on earth that have
more than a passing similarity to Frank Herbert’s melange.

It's a gem located on the Stonehill campus in Easton, Massachusetts, not far from Oliver Ames's (1779-1863) famed Shovel Works, and tells the story of one of America's oldest enterprises--and the Industrial Revolution's great successes.

Were you to walk across America in first half of the 19th century, you would have found Ames shovels at work on every farm, foundation, country road, turnpike, canal and railroad in the early Republic. Cumberland Road? Ames shovels. Erie Canal? Ames shovels. Union Pacific Railroad? Ames shovels. Transportation Revolution? Ames shovels. By 1879, the firm launched by Oliver Ames produced 3/5's of the world's shovels. (For comparison, Android tablets hit 60% market share this quarter, and 60% of your body is water.)

I'm saving "the rest of the Oliver Ames story" for my Nation of Entrepreneurs book, but wanted to share just a few pictures from today's visit.

Monday, June 10, 2013

We live in the worlds of Big Business, Big Labor, Big Oil, Big
Pharma, Big Data and, in the last decade or two, Big Productivity.

There’s an entire industry that’s emerged to promote productivity in the form of Getting Things Done (“stress-free” productivity!), First Things
First, Franklin Covey, 7 Habits, the 4-Hour Work Week, a hundred apps, a thousand
courses, and a steady barrage of articles all instructing us on how to use our
time more wisely.

I am certain, for example, to stumble upon a dozen articles this year with advice on how to clear my email inbox.

We are challenged with “contexts” in our
daily tasks, selective ignorance, interruption prevention and avoiding open
loops. Special red files store our life
goals, which must not be mixed with the light blue files containing this Friday’s
tasks. Even our GPS reminds us to
pick up toothpaste when we pass the CVS so as not to have to make a second
trip.

So, it comes as something of a surprise when we discover someone from the past who, not having been blessed with all of this productivity advice, could get anything done at all. But get it done they did, and many (whom we
rarely hear about) lived extraordinary lives filled with an endless series of accomplishments. I've had chance meetings with some of
these folks in my research over the last few weeks and, for no other reason
than I like their stories, share them with you here.